I am still working on my Christmas card. Will it ever be good enough? Anyway, I am trying to apply an "SNU-SSEmb Artful PhotoMask" to my photos. Don't have a clue what I am doing, so understandably, it's not working. Where to begin?

Duh, I just realized your posted in the PSP forum. I'm a little dense today. I'm afraid I won't be much help on this. I'm not all that familiar with PSP. Hopefully someone who is will come along with an answer. I'll try to keep my eye on the thread and if no one comes along, I'll try to find somebody.

Hi Joey. I had trouble with this too so I may be able to help. I'm using PSP XI. I use photo masks for both photos and paper and the principles are the same. Here's how I do it.....

Open up your choice of paper.Save your paper to a different file name.Open your photo mask.

Make the paper file your active window...it's the one you see. Click on "Layers" on the top tool bar.Select "New Mask Layer"Select "From Image" From the "Source Window" click the drop down box and select your mask's file name.Click "OK"

You should now have a file that has 3 layers: Raster 1, Mask - Raster 1, Group - Raster 1.If you are happy with this.. merge the layers into one Raster Layer as follows:RIGHT click on the Group - Raster 1 layerSelect "Merge"Select "Group.

These instructions will work for photos as well as paper. However, if your paper / photo is a different size and shape from your mask, the final result will end up distorted. I get around this by selecting and cropping my paper to roughly the same size as the mask before going through the process above.

I love this function so I hope these instructions work for you. If not send me a message; we may be able to work it out together.

Thanks so much. It was the last step - Merge all - that I was missing. That worked for the mask. However, using the same steps using a blending mask I get in my layers pallet -
Group Raster 1 is gray and white checkerboard, Mask Raster 1 is black filled, and Raster 1 is my picture. If I merge all, I get a white filled image. I'm assuming the blending mask is a whole 'nother animal.

And going back to the mask that worked, how do I get rid of white area left outside of masked area. I would like for it to blend into paper. Does that make any sense?

Hi Joey, Ihaven't found blending masks in PSP X but I'm assuming they may be a little like adjustment masks and this is a function I have rally used. I'm going to have a go this weekend.

I'm not sure how you've got a white area left. It may be that you mask and phot weren't exactly the same size. However. I'd just try selecting the area of the mask you do want to keep and cropping to the selection.

Joey, try searching for Merge Mode in PSP. The gray Artful masks are designed to be used with a blend--that's why they're in shades of gray rather than simply black. To just use them as "shapes", use the black masks in that set.

I don't have Corel PSP, but do have Corel Photo-Paint. In Photo-Paint, Layers are called "Objects," and you select the Blending mode by clicking on the Object, then changing the "Normal" Merge Mode (shown in the tooltip) dropdown to a different mode, such as Add, Overlay, etc. The names are slightly different than in Photoshop, but the capabilities are the same. I'm hoping it's similar in PSP.